A former chef for the royals opened up about his time working at Buckingham Palace, and exposed which member of the royal family was the most difficult to cook forCharlotte Foster Royal Reporter and Rory Gannon Showbiz Journalist
11:12, 26 Oct 2025
Prince Andrew was a particularly demanding royal to serve food for, according to former workers(Image: Max Mumby/Indigo, Getty Images)
A former royal chef has opened up about his time working in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, as he admitted which member of the Royal Family proved more challenging than the rest. It comes after Prince Andrew features in a new bombshell memoir co-written by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.
Dan Ottaway, who served as a chef at Buckingham Palace and frequently prepared meals for the late Queen Elizabeth, has shared insights from his time working for the royals. He now holds a new position as executive head chef at a luxury hotel in Ireland.
Ottaway revealed that out of all the royals he catered for, Prince Andrew stood out as “quite difficult” and “much more demanding” than his relatives, whilst also praising Princess Kate for a thoughtful gesture.
Dan Ottaway revealed Andrew would make sweeping demands(Image: Getty)
Speaking to local media in Ireland, Ottaway disclosed that Prince Andrew would inundate the Palace kitchen with elaborate eleventh-hour demands. These proved challenging to accommodate and placed enormous strain on the culinary team, leading to many resenting the King’s brother.
He explained: “We used to say that he was quite difficult, he would have been more demanding than the rest of them for sure. There would have been last-minute requests for lunches, guests, and stuff like that.
“Other family members would have told us weeks in advance because they understand we needed to prep for them,” he added, according to the Mirror. Ottaway continued that Andrew’s unreasonable demands persisted, stating: “But knowing, sort of, that he could get away with anything really, because who’s going to tell him off really, nobody.
“And he was probably the queen’s favourite child,” Dan added. “He was definitely different to the rest of the family in his meal requirements.”
The Met Police are looking into Prince Andrew’s scandal with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein(Image: Davidoff Studios Photography, Getty Images)
While the former chef acknowledged that working with Andrew proved challenging, he painted a completely different picture of the Princess of Wales, disclosing that Kate would regularly escort the children to the kitchen to express gratitude to the chefs following meals. He explained: “She didn’t want them to be ungrateful or whatever but it meant a lot to us in the kitchen to see the kids really bubbly.”
The ex-royal family chef’s revelations mirror what a former palace employee told biographer Andrew Lownie regarding Andrew and Fergie’s extravagant dining habits, and how their appetite for costly and opulent cuisine may have played a role in Sarah’s money troubles. The dismissed staff member tells Lownie that it was “greed and wastefulness that contributed to the duchess’s financial downfall.”
The former courtier alleged, as documented in Lownie’s bombshell book Entitled: “Every night she [Sarah Ferguson] demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. It’s a feast that would make Henry VIII proud.”
Dan added that Sarah Ferguson would also demand huge dishes that pushed chefs to the limit(Image: Getty Images)
The insider went on: “But often there is just her and her girls, Bea and Eugenie, and most of it is wasted. There is no attempt to keep it to have cold the next day.
“It just sits there all night, and the next day it’s thrown away.” The publication also claims that “her butler had to get in at 4.30am to put watercress on ice”.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.